52 Indian Museum Notes. [Vol* V» 



through the Reporter on Economic Products to the Government of 

 India, together with the following note :— 



" They have been doing great damage to tea, having been in millions, and 

 having denuded acres of tea bushes of all their leaves. Although basket loads 

 were brought in daily by the coolie children until apparently no more were left — 

 this was about July and August last — they are again pretty plentiful and children 

 are again picking them off. They have never before been seen here." 



In March 1900, Mr. E. E. Green sent some weevils, identified 



by Mr. C. O. Waterhouse of the British Museum as Brachyas pistes 

 tibialis. He says :— 



" They have been responsible for serious injury to clearings of young tea plants 

 in the Bogawantalawa district, Ceylon. The beetles eat off all the young shoots 

 of the growing plants leaving the stems quite bare." 



The insect is figured on plate IV (figs, 5 — 6). 



IV.— COCONUT PALM PEST. 



In August 1899, specimens of the bettle Rhynchophorus ferru- 

 gineusy Oliv., were forwarded by the Officiating Collector of Noa- 

 khali, through the Department of Land Records and Agriculture, 

 Bengal, as destructive to coconut trees. 



In November 1899, Mr. B. N. Iyer, Superintendent, Agricultural 

 Farm, Trivandrum, reported that the coconut and mela palms on 

 the coast were being attacked by grubs and beetles, the damage in 

 all probability being done by the above-mentioned species. 



V,— FOREST PESTS, ETC. 



I. In September 1899, the Deputy Conservator of Forests, Western 

 Circle, forwarded some caterpillars which he reported to be defoliat- 

 ing teak trees in the Thana district. On examination they proved 

 to be the larvae of the moth Paliga damastesalis, Walk. It has 

 been reported almost every year as defoliating teak in various 

 parts of India. 



